Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vogelbam here. Macaroni and cheese may
Speaker 1: well be the ultimate comfort food. A warm bowl of
Speaker 1: starchy pasta and melted cheese has the potential to make
Speaker 1: everything right with the world. So who came up with
Speaker 1: the idea to combine elbow macaroni with creamy cheese to
Speaker 1: create this simple, yet perfectly complimentary concoction. Although noodles trace
Speaker 1: back to ancient China and the surrounding areas circa b c.
Speaker 1: And cheese was developed even earlier in various places where
Speaker 1: humans kept milk producing animals. Mac and cheese itself has
Speaker 1: roots in Italy. An Italian cookbook from the thirteenth century
Speaker 1: called the liberd Coquina or Book of Cooking, includes a
Speaker 1: recipe that historians believe is the first macaroni and cheese recipe.
Speaker 1: This recipe calls for sheet pasta cut into two inch
Speaker 1: or five cimeter squares, cooked in water, and then tossed
Speaker 1: with grated cheese, likely parmesan. If you're thinking that that
Speaker 1: doesn't sound much like the milty mac and cheese we
Speaker 1: know today, you're right, and for that the earliest examples
Speaker 1: maybe from the Swiss Alps. A couple of centuries later.
Speaker 1: The first known recorded recipe for what we would currently
Speaker 1: call macaroni and cheese dates back to seventeen sixty nine.
Speaker 1: It appeared in Elizabeth Raffold's book The Experienced Housewife and
Speaker 1: consisted of cheddar cheese melted into a thick bechamel sauce,
Speaker 1: tossed with noodles and topped with toasted bread crumbs and parmesan.
Speaker 1: But wherever they came from, pasta and cheese dishes grew
Speaker 1: in popularity across Europe. In Colonial America, castrole dishes similar
Speaker 1: to today's mac and cheese were served at New England
Speaker 1: church suppers, where they probably originated from receipts or recipes
Speaker 1: passed along from English relatives. The dish was primarily reserved
Speaker 1: for the upper classes until the Industrial Revolution made both
Speaker 1: pasta and cheese easier to produce and thus cheaper. But
Speaker 1: Thomas Jefferson sometimes gets credit for introducing macaroni and cheese
Speaker 1: to the United States, which he did not, but he
Speaker 1: did help make it popular. He dined on the dish
Speaker 1: during his time in Italy, and he loved it so
Speaker 1: much that he brought back a pasta maker with him
Speaker 1: to the United States and had his enslaved. Black chef
Speaker 1: James Hemmings served the dish at his dinners, including at
Speaker 1: the White House in eighteen o two. Mary Rudolph, who
Speaker 1: took over hostess duties at the White House when Jefferson's
Speaker 1: wife died, included a macaroni recipe with parmesan cheese in
Speaker 1: her eighteen four cookbook The Virginia Housewife. Craft Foods introduced
Speaker 1: the Craft Macaroni and Cheese dinner in seven, at the
Speaker 1: end of the Great Depression. After research during World War
Speaker 1: One created shelf stable pasteurized process cheese. The Craft dinner,
Speaker 1: called the housewife's best Friend and nourishing one pot meal,
Speaker 1: was a fast, filling and inexpensive way to feed a family.
Speaker 1: In that year alone, eight million boxes were sold. World
Speaker 1: War two saw the development of powdered cheese, making craft
Speaker 1: dinners even less expensive and more popular. American cooks making
Speaker 1: their own homemade cheesy pasta often improvise using cheddar, Colby
Speaker 1: or yes, the more affordable process cheese and spices like
Speaker 1: nutmeg and mustard. Today, gourmet versions call for a variety
Speaker 1: of cheeses including grey Air, Smoked Gooda, and Goat, plus
Speaker 1: adens like bacon, tomatoes, shalats, and more. So the answer
Speaker 1: to today's question is that no single cook can really
Speaker 1: lay claim to the original macaroni and cheese recipe, but
Speaker 1: we can all lay claim for our own favorite. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by Marie Willsey and produced by Tyler Clain.
Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other cheesy topics,
Speaker 1: visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is a
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